Cleveland Museum of Art

Young Woman in a Patterned Dress

Date

1860s

Medium

daguerreotype with hand-applied color

Culture

America

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Instead of expressing the sitter’s personality, the pose and composition are structured to draw attention to her prized possession: her best dress. The photographer employed a compositional formula and pose frequently chosen by photographers of that era to show off dresses made from fabric with complex, rhythmic geometric patterns. Before the age of the snapshot, being photographed was a special occasion for which people dressed in their best clothing.

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